My name is Zoë Colvin and this blog is about pictures and places and books and unusual museums and everything from Z to C (that is, absolutely everything in existence, provided one takes an anarchic view of alphabetical order) Above all, it's an aide memoire for me

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Two days ago an old and very dear friend died quite unexpectedly. I am so sad, especially for his family. There is nothing to say except how miserable and unfair life can sometimes seem and how already I miss him. I am still putting pictures on Instagram, to keep my mother in touch with things we are doing and seeing, but I think I'm going to keep quiet here for a little while.

Sunday, 16 November 2014

I just spent a couple of days in Luxembourg and found myself wondering how hard it might be to escape bourgeois tendencies if you began life as a Luxembourg national. It is a lovely place and I apologise, to those who disapprove of this sort of platform hopping, for posting my pictures and comments about the trip on Instagram - http://instagram.com/zedmkc - rather than here. Apart from the speed with which one can post photographs there, it is also much easier for my mother to access my pictures there, and that matters to me, as it gives her some pleasure to see them now that she feels a bit beyond travelling herself and I am far away.

Saturday, 15 November 2014

As it says on the side of this blog, you can solve all present problems quite easily. All you have to do is go to this site. You should be able to find a present that will thrill anyone and also give them pleasure for years and years and years.

Sunday, 9 November 2014

It was actually today that we went, rather on the spur of the moment. I had finally completed the rigmarole that follows the purchase of a car in Belgium - which includes having to get a handmade numberplate, because the government only supplies one of the pair you need - and so, when we woke up and saw that the weather was beautiful, we decided to use the opportunity of sunshine and our very own vehicle to head out of town.

In Antwerp we saw lots of lovely and intersting things, and I've loaded the pictures I took onto instagram. They can be found here.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Someone I know gets cross because I just don't seem to understand that Instagram is not about words but images. Partly to be irritating, partly because it's so much easier to load pictures to Instagram than it is to Blogger, I've started doing what I suppose could be called mini blogposts over at Instagram, when I haven't quite the energy to struggle with Blogger.

Today I told a really appallingly lame joke over there, about a piano tuner. Yesterday, I read Tatler and took some pictures of the worst parts of it. That magazine is actually more appalling than any joke I could possibly make about piano tuners or anything else. Of course, like me with Instagram, it probably only does it to annoy. In which case, I congratulate it for being very, very effective.

My name on Instagram is zedmkc. I have a very fetching profile picture over there too, if I do say so myself.

Holding On - a novel

I wrote a novel that the London literary agency Sheil Land tried to sell for me. One publisher thought it was "compelling". Another said, "It’s pacy and gripping, and the plot is great." A third commented that it "is a warm, engaging and easy read", while a fourth considered that, "It is a good story (stories) well told". If you want to see what you think, you can find it here.

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About Me

I wrote a novel, represented by Sheil Land. One publisher thought it was "compelling, but it wouldn’t be easy to categorize – it is somewhere between ‘literary’ and ‘commercial’, and would need to be one or the other to be pitched for successfully in an acquisition meeting." Another said, 'It’s pacy and gripping, and the plot is great, but it lacks that lighter women’s fiction feeling. The writing is undeniably good but I’m not quite sure how I would position it on our list.'A third commented that it "is a warm, engaging and easy read but this ‘middle market fiction’ is a really tough area', while a fourth considered that, "It is a good story (stories) well told, but just missing the X-factor that would make me fall in love with it." I wanted to write an entertaining novel that I would like when I was in the mood for something thoughtful & amusing that I could enjoy without too much effort. If you would like to read it yourself, you can find it at http://cargocollective.com/Unrealities/Holding-On-a-novel.